


Winter is Coming

by grifterandthief



Series: Spring Returning [3]
Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: F/M, Kid OCs - Freeform, Mom persephone is my new weakness, Mom!Eurydice, Ophelia and Winter, This is an AU of my AU, angst with happy ending, dad!orpheus, hades is a softy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grifterandthief/pseuds/grifterandthief
Summary: AU of The Stars Too They Tell of Spring Returning.The daughter of Eurydice leads to the daughter of Persephone, who grow up to be the best of friends.  This is an AU of my AU, so I would suggest reading that piece first!!
Relationships: Eurydice/Orpheus (Hadestown), Hades/Persephone (Hadestown)
Series: Spring Returning [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575517
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	Winter is Coming

**Author's Note:**

> literally an AU of my AU. I'm a mess.

Her name is Winter, and she is born on the longest, hottest day of the year. Her mama, always playing around with the seasons, thought it was just the funniest thing to name her little june bug after the time of year she’d never see the topside of the world for. 

Her father, he claimed he was too old for this, but she didn’t leave much of a choice. Winter was comin’ whether they were ready or not. 

It started simple, Persephone telling him about her merely two months after Hadestown first ever baby, Ophelia, had been born on the cusp of fall. Theirs would not be born there, but would live half their life out among the workers and chromium throne. It wasn’t a custody arrangement any of them wanted, and Persephone herself had wondered if she could just stay in Hadestown year round for her girl. Her mother wasn’t having that and neither were any of the humans who just adjusted to life with seasons again. 

It wasn’t like either of them were particularly considering having kids, but she just happened. Life is funny like that. He will always insist he was too old for this, and she’ll insist that they were only getting older and may as well enjoy it.

They all remember the day they separated for that spring. With whispered promises of meeting in a few months. With Eurydice on the ground, screaming in agony from watching her own daughter leave in Persephone’s arms. It’s Hades, who pulls her off the ground, hiding the tears he feels building in his own eyes at his wife’s departure. 

It’s in Eurydice, in those first few months after her daughter is taken, that she teaches the king a few things. Now working in his office, doing desk work as she had since she learned she was pregnant, Eurydice knew his fears. She knows the fear of not being enough. And more than anything she understands the deeply rooted fear of losing her daughter to the topside. She understands that her baby will not know her, and the fear that the time above will drag his daughter from him too. And he grows to understand her, and to even pity her. To feel guilt over separating her from her daughter permanently, when that is now his exact fear. 

_It’s not a hard decision, when the day before the summer’s solstice he interupts her work day and tells her to come on. No time to grab anything._

“Where are you taking me?’ There's fear. There's doubt in her voice.

“Persephone will want to see you.” It’s not a lie. His wife is fond of the girl, but so is he. “You’re coming with me?”

She goes pale, if it’s possible. “You’re taking me up top? Can I see Ophelia and Orpheus, please, don’t make me go and not see them.”

He clears his throat before leaving the room. “We’re spending the week. You can spend it as you wish.” Though he smiles, out of sight, when he hears her scrambling to grab her few belongings to follow him. 

I _t’s in the train ride up. Where she was on her toes the whole time, hands ringing together anxiously. In her shaky voice as she starts conversation._

“How is persephone? Is she-”

“Hermes sent for me this morning. Demeter told him to. Guess she’s havin’ it the hottest day of the year. Leave it to her.”

“You shouldn’t call your kid ‘it’.” Leave it to this gutsy young girl, to call out the king.

“And you shouldn’t have trusted that boy to get you out of town.” It stung. It stung more than it should have. He knew it was unkind, but he was deeply unsettled. He was letting her free, that was kind enough. 

_It’s in the way he steps of the train, greeted by Orpheus. The baby in his arms babbling quietly, now 9 months old. She didn’t look much bigger than the last time he saw her, pried out of Eurydice’s arms at his station._

“My wife send you to fetch me?” Hades questioned, adjusting his shirt collar as he walked beside the boy.

“Yes Mr. Hades. She told me I was making her nervous and to get out of her house.” Orpheus squeaks, hazel eyes wide as he faces the king for the first time since he failed to get Eurydice safely home. 

  
“We better be going then, before Demeter skins us both.” Hades nodded towards town, not sure where the girl was at. Why wasn’t she following him. 

It was the baby’s quiet babbling that clued Orpheus in, the way she grabbed behind him, over his shoulder towards the train with a sound that sounded like “ma”

“Oh...you must remember the last time you saw her was by the train..” Orpheus considered, gently rocking Ophelia so she would settle before their walk to Demeter’s home. 

Yet, the baby continues to fuss, her babbling getting louder and more excited until, for the second time in his life, Orpheus turns to find Eurydice standing steps behind him.

“It’s _you_.” Orpheus choked out, nearly falling to his knees. 

“It’s me.” There are tears running down her cheeks, the widest smile Hades had ever seen on her face as she plowed into Orpheus’ arms. He looked away, feeling as if he were intruding on an intimate moment.

“If you don’t mind, i’ll be finding my wife.” Hades excused, knowing full well the walk to his wife’s summer home. “A week, Eurydice. Come see Persephone in a few days. She’ll be excited to see you looking happier.”

A week. 

A week was the time they were granted.

A week was all the time in the world to a young family, who never thought there would be a moment for them to be together.

A week for Eurydice to write 18 years worth of birthday letters for her daughter, tucked in a box with her name on them. A week to write hundreds of love letters to her husband, a week to write notes on the walls and in the covers of books. A week to give everything she had. “I will love you, always, ever, endlessly.” She signs them all, because even if Hadestown steals her memory of them it will not steal her love.

A week for her and orpheus to craft a plan, a plan of how he would explain things to their daughter. A plan for the rest of his life without her. A plan for the lifetime of raising their daughter on his own. A plan for how to tell her the truth. A plan of smuggling letters back and forth for Persephone. 

A week for her to teach him how to take measurements to give her, so she could spend her free time knitting blankets and hats for their daughter, to give her warmth through the winter that would have to replace Eurydice’s arms. 

A week fo fearing the winter and what it meant for Ophelia.

A week of Eurydice wearing every item of clothing Orpheus owns, to leave her own scent behind in them for their daughter to remember. 

A week of blissful domesticity. Of Orpheus showing her their night routine, of Eurydice holding her daughter to her chest and feeling the sweet weight of her in her arms. A week of wasting no time on sleep, of laying and just looking at each other. Of talking endlessly, exchanging stories through the night. 

A week of love and relearning the way their arms felt around each other. Of sleepless nights because of touch and feeling. A week of no fear for the future, because they have nothing to lose. 

A week of Ophelia, snuggled between them, clinging to her mother as if she knew she would disappear again forever.

A week of singing their daughter to sleep together.

A week of dancing in the bar, who’s patrons celebrated Eurydice and the daughter she had that brought music back into Orpheus’ soul. 

A week of ignoring the ache in her stomach, the pain of her body from the time in hell. A week of ignoring the sadness that laid under the surface from the knowledge of the time limit on their joy. 

A week of fawning over persephone’s daughter, with her soft brown eyes and curled chestnut hair. A week of thinking about the future summers and springs, when Ophelia will have a friend to play with. A friend who shares the same intrinsic connection to hadestown. 

A week of musing over the name Winter, and the way the king of hell smiles at a tiny little girl, who can’t even lift her head but somehow wrapped him around her fingers.

But a week ends.

A week ends with Persephone crying at the station, a 6 day old asleep on her shoulder as she begs him to stay a little longer. 

Persephone asking him to stay topside. 

His heartbroken response of “I have to get this work done, I’ll be back for you in a few months.” Because he needs to get on that train before mortals see the feared king of hadestown break down in sobs of longing for his wife and daughter. 

“Fall can come early this year right?” Persephone pleads, between her husband and mother. 

“Not this early, Persephone.” Demeter whispers, running her hand over her daughter’s thick curls. 

He has to pull his hand away from Winter, from the way she wraps her whole fist around his forefinger when he catches Eurydice with his gaze.

Eurydice with her head buried in Orpheus’ chest, the two of them sobbing with no care for who sees. His arm holding her as tight as he can while Ophelia clings to her neck. Even the baby, she can tell that things are changing on her again. 

“Maybe he’ll let you come back one visit?” Orpheus tries to hope, but his tears are falling into her hair at an alarming rate. “Please..just stay. Don’t go back...”

“My sweet poet...Always hopeful. I can’t stay. I..I have to go.” She muses, but she can barely see from the tears obstructing her vision. “I love you. Always, forever, and endlessly.” Eurydice promises. Promises her daughter with a final kiss on her dark hair, before handing her to Orpheus weakly. She reaches for her, and clearly babbles, asking for her mama. Eurydice wraps her arms around him, pulling his face down to her in the longest, deepest kiss she can have. The last of her life. “Take care of her. I love you. I love you I love you I love you.”

She is shaking as she walks away, the sound of her daughter’s screams. Not cries, but actual screams for her, reverberated through her body and almost brought her to the ground. 

She joins Hades side, as he steps onto the train. Eurydice pretends not to see the tears welling in his eyes, too. This will be an emotional journey underground, she hopelessly realizes. 

“Your girl, she’s asking for you. You better go to her.” Hades tells her absently, looking out the window to Persephone, only a few steps away and crying into Orpheus’ shoulder herself now. 

“I..I can’t. It’ll just make it harder. I’m afraid if I take her back, then I won’t let her go. And I can’t bring her back down. I just can’t. Her life is so much better here.” Eurydice manages, pulling her knees to her chest. 

It is then that he realizes exactly the level of selflessness Eurydice has. A year ago and a half ago he would have deemed her just a little selfish. Leaving Orpheus to save her own skin- _but a year and a half ago he would have deemed Persephone selfish for leaving him every year too._ Nothing wrong with saving herself, but to relinquish her daughter not once but twice now? Theres not a selfish bone in her.

He can’t imagine it now. He’s struggling leaving his six day old daughter only for three months, knowing she’ll come back to him soon enough. Eurydice, she knew she would never see her daughter again, and still chose to let her go. He looks at his daughter, and sees nothing but how much he loves her. How he would kill anyone who got in her way or dared to hurt her. Yes, he realized now, just how much he could love a girl who was not his wife. 

“I think If I held her again I couldn’t give her back.” She bites her lip, but doesn’t look away from the window. Like she was preserving the memory forever. 

“Then don’t. Go. See her.”

“I can’t, I can’t keep her down there..”  
  


“You’re not going back down. Go, get your daughter.” He, too, did not look away from the window. Remembering his tiny daughter as he knew he’d never see her that size again.

“What are you-” She looked up from her knees, squinting dark, teary eyes at him.  
  


“Winter will need a friend, and so will Persephone. She’ll need someone up here too. It’s not my place to keep your daughter from her mother. Go. You’re not bringing her, you’re staying. Go.” He nodded his head off the train, towards his crying wife and her crying poet. 

“Mr. Hades are you sure-”

“Get going, songbird. I want to see her face when you step off.” He insisted, looking up at her finally. “Your contract was destroyed before we left. You’re free to go.”

_You’re free._ And this time not to a factory for eternity. Free to her orpheus. Free to her baby. 

It was out of character when she threw her arms around the king, something noone ever dared before her. “Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.” Eurydice was breathless, still crying freely, openly. 

“Take care of Persephone, will you? She’ll run herself ragged.” It was a request. _Take care of my family_. 

“I-i will Mr. Hades. Thank you. Thank you again.” She wasted no time, before she half ran off the train. 

“You’re welcome, Eurydice.” He whispered to the air, just in time to see Eurydice’s body crash into Orpheus, her sobs audible from his compartment. 

He made eye contact with Persephone, and gave a small nod when she gave him a knowing look. The kingdom will not fall for a song, but it may for the love of a girl. A summer girl named Winter.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on Tumblr with prompts @milfeurydice


End file.
